NEW YORK: US officials have ordered Boeing to fix engines on some of its 787 Dreamliner airplanes to avoid sudden failure in icy conditions, calling the problem an “urgent safety issue.”
Friday’s Federal Aviation Administration directive concerns a potential problem in General Electric’s most advanced engines that affects 176 planes worldwide, following a January incident that caused an engine on a Boeing’s newest 787 passenger jet to fail mid-flight.
Although pilots on the Japan Airlines flight from Vancouver to Tokyo shut down the engine, the incident was not deemed serious because the plane’s other engine, and older version of the same model, was not susceptible to the problem.
Boeing’s most sophisticated passenger plane, the Dreamliner is constructed largely of advanced lightweight carbon-fiber reinforced composite materials that reduce fuel use.
However, a series of problems has plagued the aircraft during development and production as well as since its first commercial flight in late 2011.
